Revivogen Adds New Ingredients

Revivogen Adds Procyanidins and Liposomes

Revivogen, which contains the most potent natural inhibitors of type 1 and 2 5-alpha reductase, is now formulated with Procyanidin Oligomers for increased hair growth stimulation as well as active ingredients of saw palmetto extract for improved androgen receptor blocking…Other enhancements include refinement of fatty acids and addition of a liposomal delivery system.

Procyanidin Oligomers (also known as Proanthocyanidin) are naturally derived ingredients that have shown to stimulate hair growth similarly to Minoxidil (Rogaine®). Recent studies by Japanese scientists have shown that Procyanidin Oligomers possess growth stimulation activity toward hair epithelial cells in vitro and stimulate anagen induction in hair follicles in vivo. Addition of Procyanidin Oligomers to Revivogen is intended to increase the hair growth stimulation properties of the formula.

Saw Palmetto extract has shown to inhibit both 5-alpha reductase and androgen receptors. The ability of Saw Palmetto to inhibit the androgen receptors is due to specific ingredients found in trace amounts in an average extract. Now Revivogen contains a higher concentration of these active ingredients including beta-sitosterol to enhance the androgen blocking properties of the formula.

The new fatty acid source for Revivogen formula has been changed to only include GLA, ALA, Linoleic acid, and Oleic acid. These are the most potent inhibitors of 5-alpha reductase with GLA, ALA, and Oleic acids also having potent anti-inflammatory properties.

Addition of liposomal delivery system is another enhancement of Revivogen formula. Liposome’s are microscopic lipid packets that are used for delivery of many medications and are commonly used by the pharmaceutical companies in topical preparations. Adding liposomal delivery system further enhances the absorption of the active ingredients into the skin and aids in their delivery to the hair follicle where they can exert their effects.

We have previously reported that proanthocyanidins extracted from grape seeds possess growth-promoting activity toward murine hair epithelial cells in vitro and stimulate anagen induction in hair cycle progression in vivo. This report constitutes a comparison of the growth-promoting activity of procyanidin oligomers and the target cells of procyanidins in the skin. Results show that procyanidin dimer and trimer exhibit higher growth-promoting activity than the monomer. The maximum growth-promoting activity for hair epithelial cells with procyanidin B-2, an epicatechin dimer, reached about 300% (30 microM) relative to controls (= 100%) in a 5 d culture. Optimum concentration of procyanidin C-1, an epicatechin trimer, was lower than that of procyanidin B-2; the maximum growth-promoting activity of procyanidin C-1 was about 220% (3 microM). No other flavonoid compounds examined exhibit higher proliferative activities than the procyanidins. In skin constituent cells, only epithelial cells such as hair keratinocytes or epidermal keratinocytes respond to procyanidin oligomers. Topical application of 1% procyanidin oligomers on shaven C3H mice in the telogen phase led to significant hair regeneration [procyanidin B-2, 69.6% +/- 21.8% (mean +/- SD); procyanidin B-3, 80.9% +/- 13.0%; procyanidin C-1, 78.3% +/- 7.6%] on the basis of the shaven area; application of vehicle only led to regeneration of 41.7% (SD = 16.3%). In this paper, we demonstrate the hair-growing activity of procyanidin oligomers both in vitro and in vivo, and their potential for use as agents to induce hair growth.

For the purpose of discovering natural products which possess hair growing activity, we examined about 1000 kinds of plant extracts concerning growth-promoting activity with respect to hair follicle cells. After an extensive search, we discovered that proanthocyanidins extracted from grape seeds promote proliferation of hair follicle cells isolated from mice by about 230% relative to controls (100%); and that proanthocyanidins possess remarkable hair-cycle-converting activity from the telogen phase to the anagen phase in C3H mice in vivo test systems. The profile of the active fraction of the proanthocyanidins was elucidated by thiolytic degradation and tannase hydrolysis. We found that the constitutive monomers were epicatechin and catechin; and that the degree of polymerization was 3.5. We demonstrated the possibility of using the proanthocyanidins extracted from grape seeds as agents inducing hair growth.